The present invention relates to toilets and more particularly to a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that eliminates the need for the user to touch either the seat or cover with their hands.
Many prior art toilet seat lifting devices are known, which permits the user to raise the toilet seat by stepping upon a pedal. By the use of levers, rods, cables or fluid displacing systems, the force of the user's foot is transmitted to the toilet seat so that the seat may be lifted without soiling the hands and without the inconvenience of bending down to reach the seat.
Although some such prior art devices are functional, they have not achieved wide acceptance and use in the United States. This lack of acceptance is believed to be due, at least in part, to several disadvantages inherent in the design in the prior art devices. Some devices, such as that disclosed in the Kemp U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,016 are mechanically complex and could therefore be prohibitively expensive to manufacture. Simpler and perhaps less costly devices, such as that disclosed in the Svedelius U.S. Pat. No. 1,999,070 have failed to provide any form of adjustment to fit toilets at varying heights. Some prior art devices must also be rigidly attached to the toilet and/or to the floor nearby to permit proper functioning. A practice of rigid permanent attachment has made cleaning of the toilet unnecessarily awkward, since the device may not be easily removed for regular cleaning.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering assembly that can be operated by a remote control.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that eliminates the need for the user to touch either the seat or seat cover.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that diverts a portion of the pressurized water traveling to the water tank of the toilet and utilizes this pressurized water to operate actuator assembly means connected to lifting levers secured to the respective toilet seat and seat cover for raising them from a horizontal position to a vertical position.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can utilize an infra-red sensing light to flush the toilet after the user has moved away from the toilet.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can be retrofit to a majority of the existing toilets.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that can be applied to new toilet designs such as being built in to the tank and out of sight.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system having a modular lever actuating housing that is mounted on the top surface of the toilet bowl adjacent the rear end of the toilet seat.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel toilet seat and seat cover lifting and lowering system that keeps the seat cover closed on the toilet bowl and thereby keeping children and pets from getting into the toilet water.